India's rescue efforts 'premature and badly planned', says Israel

Tel Aviv, Nov.28 : Israel defence officials have criticised the way Indian security forces have handled the terror attacks in Mumbai.

The Jerusalem Post quoted officials of Israel's security forces as saying that the operation to rescue hostages and counter-attack the terrorists was premature and badly planned.

"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assemble at the scene and begin collecting intelligence," The Times quoted a former official in Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency, as saying.

"In this case, it appears that the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists instead of first taking control of the area," he said.

The security experts' criticism came as Defence Minister Ehud Barak offered assistance to India through India's National Security Adviser M.K.Narayanan.

The two countries have close defence ties. India has bought more than five billion dollars worth of Israeli equipment since 2002.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the two countries have already discussed an agreement for Israel's Defence Force to send its own highly trained commandos to help India in Kashmir.

The newspaper claims that Major General Avi Mizrahi, the commander in chief of Israel's Ground Forces Command spent three days visiting Kashmir in September to discuss the plan.